Liberal Dutch statesman who energetically attacked the exploitative, colonial Culture System, which extracted wealth from the Dutch East Indies using forced labour, and who succeeded in abolishing some of its abuses.

Van de Putte spent 10 years at sea before becoming a sugar planter on Java in 1849. By the time he returned to The Netherlands in 1860 he was well informed about conditions in the Indies. He advocated direct taxation instead of compulsory labour, and private enterprise instead of government monopoly. By 1862 he was a Liberal leader of Parliament and in 1863 was appointed minister of colonies. When he became prime minister (1866), his plan to abolish communal ownership of land on Java met with great resistance, and he was forced to resign. The power of the Liberal Party was broken, but in Parliament he continued to fight for reform. He succeeded in limiting both the types of crops under forced cultivation and the amount of land available to the government. He reduced corruption by abolishing the practice of rewarding officials according to the amount of produce their district brought in. The Culture System was abolished in 1870.